


Guy Allegre's Excellent Clock

by SouthernContinentSkies



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Guess the Off-screen Crossover Cameo, Post-CVA, Sort Of, Time Period: Reign of Gregor Vorbarra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-14 20:22:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18483679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SouthernContinentSkies/pseuds/SouthernContinentSkies
Summary: Some of ImpSec's intelligence sources are more useful than others.





	Guy Allegre's Excellent Clock

**Author's Note:**

> Mystery Character revealed in the End Notes for anyone who doesn't catch it before then.

When the chime sounded in Guy’s office, he looked up sharply. But it was only the regular clock, signaling the hour; absorbed in the paperwork generated by the upcoming Annual Review, he’d lost track of the time. His eyes slid over to the other clock, just to be sure. Indeed, it was just as it had been earlier, with seven of the eight arms pointing towards “Home.” Gregor’s, of course, was instead on “Indeterminate Peril,” but that was par for the course.

Guy frowned slightly, and turned back to his paperwork. He appreciated the intelligence provided by the clock, such as it was, but he had to admit (to himself, alone in his own office) that it unnerved him. It went against his professional instincts to accept intelligence from an unverified source, and the inner workings of the clock were a complete mystery to anyone apart from the Clockmaker. But the Emperor trusted him, and so had Simon Illyan, insofar as that was possible, so Guy really had no standing to disagree. 

He did wish the intelligence provided were a bit more precise, however. In addition to the locational descriptions of “Home,” “Out,” “Komarr,” “Sergyar,” and “Travelling,” the clock face contained no less than seven distinct degrees of Peril, ranging from “Unsubstantiated” to “Inevitable.” The Clockmaker had explained that traditionally there was only one degree (“Mortal”), but such a complete lack of detail had proven woefully insufficient for the security arrangements of the Emperor of Barrayar. Allowances had therefore been made. 

The result, however, still required some interpretation. Current official policy was to step up investigations on a transition to “Approaching,” and to scale up the relevant family member’s perimeter incrementally through the intervening stages until a full activation of the crash team at “Imminent,” but the development of this system had unfortunately required some trial and error. Guy recalled, with a wince, the incident with the Polian Ambassador and the spoiled fish. Accidental food poisoning was unfortunate, but so was having to renegotiate Hegen Hub trade treaties after an embarrassing arrest. He did not envy Simon Illyan the early stages of the clock, when the calibrations had been even more unsteady – to say nothing of the various other tools the Clockmaker had provided while trying to be Helpful. Several finicky instruments of varying logic and inscrutability were strewn about the surfaces of Guy’s office, most of which promised more actionable intelligence than they delivered.

He shot a baleful eye at a particularly complicated mass of cogs and interlocking wheels squatting on a bookshelf in the far corner. That … _device_ (the Clockmaker had called it a Sneak-o-scope, but Guy refused, on principles of professionalism, to do so himself) had an obnoxious habit of screaming like a boiling teapot during almost every meeting, to the point that Guy now held most of his briefings in the conference room down the hall. On a few occasions it had even started whistling while he was writing memos by himself. He wondered what on earth had possessed the Clockmaker to install a device for detecting literally any untrustworthy activity into a nest of spies. If Simon hadn’t credited the damn thing with saving his life during that nasty business with the chip, Guy would have discreetly binned it ages ago. It said something about the changing nature of the position, he reflected, not to mention Barrayar as a whole, that a level of paranoia the previous Chief of ImpSec had found indispensable, the current Chief found merely annoying. Even all these years on, however, it was difficult for him to disregard anything that Simon Illyan had relied upon, and so the device had rescued from his previous office along with all the others. 

He would, he thought, feel a bit better about the Clockmaker and his contraptions if they were provided on ImpSec’s specifications and schedule, instead of at the Clockmaker’s own whim. They tended to be styled as gifts for the Emperor, and therefore arrived on such occasions as Winterfair or the Emperor’s Birthday, which meant that Guy (and his staff) had to juggle the integration of a new mechanism into an already very busy time. Even worse, the Clockmaker was impervious to outside requests, unless they came directly from Gregor. Guy had attempted, once, to direct the Clockmaker’s activities towards something actually necessary at the time: an improved escape route out of the Imperial Suite, to replace the old warren of Isolation-era tunnels. In the wake of the HQ disaster, such routes could no longer be considered reliable. But the Clockmaker had categorically refused.

“Means of egress are means of ingress, General,” he had said flatly. “I won’t be responsible for that sort of security risk.” And with Gregor declining to Request and Require such a project, no amount of wheedling, intimidation, or illustrated presentations from Guy could hope to change his mind.

Still, the clock had one major benefit, unmatched by the rest of even ImpSec’s impressive intelligence apparatus: reliable, real-time updates on the status of the principals. Even with near-instantaneous planetary comms, someone still had to turn on their console and send a message. And those people could be suborned, or eliminated, and comm lines could be cut. But the clock, mysterious though it was, was impervious to interference unless smashed, and if the enemy were that far inside ImpSec the level of peril would be obvious.

Guy checked the clock again. The Emperor’s Peril was still at Indeterminate, and the rest of the Imperial Family remained at Home. Thus reassured, Guy stowed the last of the Review paperwork firmly in his Out box, and stood up to leave. Simon Illyan might have practically slept in his office, but this was a brave new world now, and even the Chief of Imperial Security could afford to leave his post from time to time without endangering the Imperium.

The doors of his office closed behind him, and in the darkness, the clock kept watch alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Molly Weasley's "excellent clock" (per Dumbledore) gets stuck on Mortal Peril for the whole family at the height of the war. Obviously, it would need tweaking for the Barrayaran context!
> 
> The "Mystery HP Canon Character" is Draco Malfoy, who refuses to do a repeat of the Vanishing Cabinet. There's a longer, earlier story here, currently in fragments on my hard drive. Maybe someday I'll put them together into something postable, but for now, here's this.


End file.
